The raddest Taoist and best dishwasher around, Futo is back yet again for more plate destruction. Futo's arsenal will have you conjuring up many things, from simple fireballs to dragon boats, while moving gracefully through the air at futofast speeds.

Futo is a very mobile character, a quality that you will need to use to out maneuver the opponent while covering yourself with plates, fireballs, arrows. Other moves like wind teleport or pillar act as a decent surprise or punish attack. Laying plates is of the utmost importance however, as these are the key to gaining stage control with your fireballs, and to helping her approach. Knowing when to play passively or to play aggressively is important while playing Futo, as she can capitalize off of stray projectiles rather well, but is rather vulnerable without proper coverage.

Pros :

Very agile character with good gravity, can get in rather easily and jump fast to where she needs to be.

Decent stage control with her fireball, tornado and arrows.

Cheap spell cards (and by extension, very cheap last word).

Has good tagB bullets, comes out fast and can lead to a lot of damage in combos.

Can confirm into her LW very easily

Has very good pressure

She can do cool poses.

Cons :

Good luck getting wallslam outside the mid lane without assists.

Coverage beneath her from her normal moves leaves a little to desire for.

Her melee moves outside of j5a or 66a aren't all that fast and/or have quite a bit of recovery

A lot of her bullets aren't very quick to come out either and/or have quite a bit of recovery

5b/2b/8b: Futo throws three slow moving plates forward and one fast moving gold plate. Only the gold plate will set if it hits or is blocked, the rest will break, and will count towards your broken plate counter only if they hit. You can angle the plates using 8b/2b. Jump cancel this move at any time if you only want to throw 1~3 plates. 10% stun per plate hit.

6b: Futo tosses a flaming plate in the opponent's direction. The plate rebounds off of the walls. The plate is then set on the field, unless Futo is hit before the plate is set. Hits up to 4 times. 5% stun per hit.

[b]: Futo blows the air to creates a tornado that moves forward relatively slowly. It sucks in plates on the field and plates caught on it's path will be consumed, making the tornado bigger, and adding a plate to your plate counter. 10% stun per hit.

bbb[b]: Futo creates waves of 12 small plates around her at a time, which are then aimed at the opponent. These plates cause no hitstun.

5c: Liuren Holy Fire

Futo conjures a fireball that aims at every plate on the field and burns them, counting towards your broken plate counter. Once it breaks every plate on the field, it aims at the opponent. If there are no plates on the field, the fireball is shot forward. 40% stun when the fireball explodes, 20% stun if just hit by the fireball passing by.

6c: Ame-no-Iwafune

Futo hops backwards onto a dragon boat and rides it forward. Futo majestically jumps backwards off the boat if it's block or if it gets to the end of it's trajectory. 40% stun.

j6c:

Futo hops onto a small boat and rides it forward a short distance. Futo jumps forward off the boat at the end of it's trajectory. Startup is significantly faster than 6c. 40% stun.

4c: Water-Embracing Plates

Futo causes all plates around her to overflow, causing forward moving pillars of water to be created on the field for a few moments. Hits once when creating the overflow circle, and hits up to 4 times for each individual water pillar. Plates consumed will be counted towards your broken plate counter. 3% stun per water pillar hit.

2c/(up)j2c: Wind's Ominous Hole

Futo will teleport upward, then downward while spinning, creating a wide whirlwind around her feet at the mid-line. If there are plates on the field, she will teleport onto the latest plate set and create the whirlwind around it, breaking the plate in the process. The broken plate will count towards your broken plate counter. Hits up to 10 times. 4% stun per hit.

(down)j2c: Standing Mountain

Futo jumps to the ground and spawns a stone pillar under her feet that is angled forward. The pillar will break any plates on it's path, causing them to shatter into tiny fragments that can hit the opponent. The broken plates will count towards your broken plate counter. 40% stun for the pillar hit.

8c: Royal Dragon's Arrow Futo shoots an arrow upward at an angle. If there is a plate nearby, the arrow will be aimed so that it will bounce off of it, creating 4 additional smaller arrows that spread out around the main arrow which is now aimed towards the opponent. Destroys the plate in the process, adding a plate to your broken plate counter. 20% stun.

Futo's urban legend is Banchou Sarayashiki, the story of the vengeful plate counting spirit Okiku.

Futo's related gimmick, as you can guess, is a plate destroying gimmick. Futo possesses a broken plate counter than goes up to 10. Each plate destroyed will count towards this broken plate counter.

A+B : This summons Okiku once you have at least one plate destroyed on your broken plate counter. Doing so, Futo will set a plate in front of her from which Okiku will jump out and uppercut the opponent. This is a two hit move, one hit when Futo sets the plate, and one hit when Okiku jumps out, both of which hit melee. This moves has no hitbox if you have 0 broken plates on your plate counter however, as Okiku will not jump out and Futo will look at her plate confused. Resets your broken plate counter to 0. 40% stun on the last hit.

The more plates that have been broken, the stronger this move will be, with one notable exception: If you have broken 9 plates, one shy of having a full plate counter, this move will cause extra damage and hitstun. This won't happen at 10 plates.

Futo spins 5 plates at high velocities around her. Hits up to 10 times for 2433 damage raw, although if the opponent is close, it will send them flying after 5 hits. 5 plates are set on the field afterwards. The spell card is a reversal and wallslams. 100% stun from the first hit.

Futo creates flames and throws them towards the ground, diagonally, creating a wave of flame pillars that go in both directions. Damages seems to go up to 3550 raw at 12 hits if used in the corner. 100% stun from the first hit.

2-3 plates: Throws the former as well as 2 larger projectiles, including furniture and gravestones. 20% stun per projectile.

4-5 plates: Everything from the previous levels is thrown at the opponent. After a set amount of time spent in the zone, a UFO will drop from the sky. Hits up to 11 times for 6376 damage. 10% stun per hit.

Futo places what seems to be a portable well on a plate. The well then starts sucking the air around it. If the opponent is sucked in, Okiku pops out of the well sending the opponent flying. Futo then strikes a pose. If nothing is sucked in, Futo sends the well flying which can also hurt the opponent on it's way down. Futo is invincible until she throws the well. Does 6500 damage raw. 100% stun. The initial vacuum is blockable melee.

Comparing to other Last Words, Futo's is on the low end of the damage spectrum. But, thanks to her absurdly cheap spell cards, she has arguably the second most cost effective Last Word in term of damage-to-cost ratio (after Koishi). With Opening the Gate of Catastrophe and Nitori as slave, she can quickly fill her spell bar (which is 1200 collectively) in a single half. Her Miwa Plate Storm costs only 200 point more, and is a good spell to back you up if the tide is not in your favour when aiming for Last Word strategy.

This choice depends on what strengths you want available on your team. Here are a couple basic options you could go for, with character suggestions that might help said option. However, they are simply suggestions, so feel free to experiment with other options!

Since Futo has an easy way to confirm her last word, a good choice for an assist would be characters like Nitori (700 cost card), Reimu (800 cost card) or Yukari(800 cost card) who have cheap spell cards as well, to build up that meter fast. The 100 cost difference between the spell cards is honestly not very significant.

If you need someone to help her to wallslam from anywhere, Reimu is generally a good choice, as her Youkai buster (6c), works very well to end combos. Ichirin and Tenshi are also very good choices for this purpose by using the slave jump cancel tactic.

If you want someone to help her pressure better, characters like Mamizou, Mokou, Nitori, Yukari or Joon can be used. Mamizou and Yukari has great tagB bullets to keep opponents in the corner, although they'll most likely try to jump, so you'll have to resort to jumping strings. Nitori, Mokou and Joon seem to have really good pressure in general, and coming in off of 8a(1) into switch melee is really good for her.

You can try going for someone who has a good spell card combo for her. This depends on the spell card however. If you're using Blaze sign, if you hit with it in the corner, it is rarely worth it to even use the double spell card. However Reimu, Tenshi, Kokoro or even Sumireko can be ok choices if you hit with it midscreen. For the Wind sign spell cards, Reimu, Marisa or Kokoro can catch it, midscreen or in corner. Again though, it's probably better not to use double spell card since the Wind sign card gives you a free wallslam setup. For her fate spell card, someone who can lock characters down and force them to block for a bit can be useful. Koishi seems to do an ok job for this.

There are other options that are good for the neutral game, Mamizou's tagB bullets are extremely annoying to just throw out since they linger. Yukari also has really good switch bullets and aim in on the opponent fairly quickly. Having good tag Cancels for your fireball or arrows can be a good option in neutral as well. You can do stuff like 5c or 8c into Nitori's 8c, or Sumireko's anything for example, which can help. You can also simply choose a character with a good neutral game for when you need to recover white health. The possibilities here are quite endless, do not limit yourself to the pairs listed here!

You'll want to be ending combos with either 5aaa (delay) 8a 66b or 5aaaa, which are pretty much her only enders that induce a standing stun state. Numbers in parentheses after moves like 6a(1) indicate number of hits you want to hit with a multi-hit move before cancelling into the next. Moves in parentheses like (j5a) means an optional input that may or may not come with some restrictions.

Combo demonstration. This combo is slightly easier if you do less hits on the 5aaa, but obviously it will do less damage. You don't need the second 66 in the corner, you'll be close enough to connect 8a(2) 66b.

5aaa2a j6b j66 j5a (5aaa)6a2.1k~2.3k damage

Very awkward to hit the 5aaa, however you can forgo the wallslam and just end with 6a for an easy combo.

6a(1) 6b 366/966 j5a 66 5aaa (delay) 8a 66b3.1k damage

Combo demonstration. Might be able to improve on this combo. You can omit 5aaa and go straight for 8a for an easier but weaker combo.

66a 8c j66 j5a 66 5aaa (delay) 8a 66b3k damage

Combo demonstration. You must hit with all hits on 5aaa and do a small delay afterwards before doing 8a. Doing that lets you get the normal version of 8a which groundslams, instead of the dial-a version, which doesn't. You can omit 5aaa and go straight for 8a for an easier but weaker combo.

66a 5a+b 66 5aaa (delay) 8a 66b3.6k damage

Combo demonstration.Requires 9 broken plates. You can omit 5aaa and go straight for 8a for an easier but weaker combo.

(j5a) 66a 8c j66 j5a LW5.7k~6.2k damage

Combo demonstration. A 66a starter does more damage than a j5a starter, but j5a (land) 66a is easier to land in the neutral game.

j2a 3 j5a(1) j8a(1) j6b j66 j5a 66 5aaa6a2.8k damage

Combo demonstration. Any more hits on the j5a or j8a and the combo is very likely to drop. Might be able to improve on this combo.

Combo demonstration. For hits below the mid lane. Can get a wallslam off of it if you get enough hits off of j8a, however if you don't, you can end with 6c for extra damage and techable limit. 5a might whiff if you hit too low.

j5a (j8a) j8b j5c1.5k damage

Combo demonstration. An easy way to get 100% limit, but low on damage. Use if you're not in a position to confirm any of the other air to air combos. Will not 100% limit if there are other plates on the field.

Basic confirm for the 700 cost spell card. Generally works from anywhere.

(...) 66a Wind Sign

A bit spacing dependant, however if you are close enough, this works wonders.

(...) 8a 66b Wind Sign OR (...) 8a Wind Sign

Corner only, however very good way of using it at the end of combos. 8a 66b Wind sign does double wallslam which reduces the amount of downtime you have to setup, so you might want to do the Wind sign after 8a instead.

(...) 5aaa (delay) 8a(2) Blaze Sign OR (...) 5aaa8a(2) Blaze Sign

Basic confirm for the 1200 cost spell card. Works from anywhere, however it is preferable to hit with the spell card in the corner to get the most damage off. Of course if you're going for an assist combo spell card, you can disregard that comment.

Nitori slave. Not very powerful, but an easy wallslam confirm for when you go for 66a 6e and hit with either move. If against a small body opponent, might want to back up very slightly before jumping, hence (4) 7 in the combo notation.

It is a bit more difficult to pressure in this game than it was in ULiL now that tri-jumping has been toned down, however there are still a couple simple mixups you can do. As it was with the past games, frame trapping people who want to jump is a good place to start, since as usual, jumping has a couple frames of vulnerability right after they input it. The addition of tag melee moves helps tremendously for frame trapping!

You have a couple new mixup options in this game. For starters you have grabs, which will be good to punish people who pushblock too much. Sadly, grab works both ways. You'll have to look out from being grabbed out of pressure, since the grab is quite fast. You'll have to cover yourself by either getting yourself in the air (8a(1) works well for this), or frame trapping them.

You also have the chip damage options, since chip damage is quite high in this game. Futo doesn't really have many good chip options however. [b] seems to be her best bet if you get a hit while jumping, so that you can dash cancel j5a or something.

In summary, you want to grab people who overpushblock, frame trap those who jump or grab too much, and go for quick pressure resets for those who just sit and block. Of course, if you're going vs someone that has a dp or a declared reversal spell card, you'll have to be more careful and try to bait it out.

A good start and decent to stagger with. Make sure while staggering not to leave too much of a gap so they can grab you. That way, you can condition them not to grab and can go for riskier stuff. j5a is a very good meaty option for opponents in an untechable state. Note that the third hit of dial-a is multi-hit.

5b follow up

This is a good option for opponents who are holding pushblock and won't react with jump, and is especially good midscreen. Note that you If they get caught blocking, you can 366 j5a and reset pressure easily. This can be especially hard to see coming because you can cancel your 5aaa at anytime since it's multi-hit. If they jump however your only option is to try and follow them, or go back to neutral.

6a or 66a follow up

Used to catch jumping and conditions them to not jump after 5aaa. After these moves it is recommended to use 6e to prevent them from jumping out and continue pressure with slave. This puts you in an awkward spot to continue pressure, however if they are extra respectful, or when you condition them to fear the 6e, you can possibly 8c j66 j5a after 66a and reset pressure instead.

8a follow-up

Easy way to reset pressure if they don't see it coming. Use 8a(1) j2b j66 j5a. Will lose to jump out if they can react to the 8a(1) hit, however you can possibly try to condition them to block with the 6e follow up instead.

4a reset follow-up

For the extra respectful of players, you can always try and dash up 4a them to continue pressure. This *will* lose to grabbing and mashing though, so use it wisely. It loses to jumping too if they react fast enough.

iad j5a reset follow-up

A bit slower then the 4a reset, but an instant air dash reset is one of the safer ways to reset since it can catch grabbing and mashing attempts, however it's easier to react to with a jump.

dash grab follow up

Good option for the opponents who love to pushblock. Loses to mash, jumping and grab teching. This is also a good option after simply a j5a starter without going into 5aaa, however, be sure to delay it appropriately, or else you'll get 6a.

66a starter

Probably the most reliable meaty option to catch opponents in a techable state, or for opponents who tag tech out of the corner. Has less options than a 5a starter.

8c follow-up

Catches grab and mashing, however if they jump out you lose out on pressure. 8c can also whiff if your 66a hits on the tip of it's hitbox and they pushblock perfectly. do j66 j5a after 8c to follow up and reset pressure, unless they jump, in which case you have to be careful.

a+b follow-up

If you think they'll be holding jump after 66a, you can do a+b to catch them if your plate meter is not empty. This option is especially effective if you have 9 plates on the meter, because the extra hitstun lets you go for a full combo afterwards. However if the opponent is paying attention to your plate meter, they might see this coming. Basically ends your pressure if they block it.

6e follow-up

Good option if you have a good pressure slave, or if you have full assist meter and you can do stuff like 66a 6e 8a/2a/6a 6e to cycle back into your main. Having a slave that has a normal move that put them in the air makes cycling a lot easier, as cancelling into jumping tag melee allows for land cancel reset 4a.

4a reset follow-up

Risky option, but can be used against the extra respectful. However if they don't pushblock the 66a, it is kind of easy to react with a grab or mash.

grab option

Equally risky option as the last. Use if you know they'll just sit there and block it, or if they pushblock. However if the opponent knows their options, they'll most likely react to the 66a with a jump or grab/grab tech.